Restoration of queen’s
bedroom wins award
The Historic Hawai'i Foundation has presented Washington Place with a preservation award for restoring Queen Liliuokalani's bedroom.
The award is given each year to projects that demonstrate outstanding achievement in the field of preservation, restoration or interpretation and play a significant role in Hawaii's physical and cultural heritage.
Washington Place curator Corinne Chun Fujimoto said last week that the restoration project developed from a larger undertaking to repair extensive termite damage throughout the mansion.
During the course of the work, long-lost "secrets" were discovered that directed efforts to restore the bedroom of Hawaii's last monarch, she said.
The secrets include a doorway, hidden for decades behind modern wallpaper, which was reconstructed.
In addition, wallpaper created from historic printing plates was meticulously applied using 19th-century wall-hanging techniques.
Chun Fujimoto credited the project's success to the vision established by the former director, the late Jim Bartels.
Washington Place was built in 1842 by John Dominis, a wealthy trader.
The mansion later became the home of Queen Liliuokalani through her marriage to Dominis' son.
In 1919, at the urging of the queen's nephew, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii established Washington Place as an executive mansion for Hawaii's governors.
Washington Place:
www.hawaii.gov/gov/washington_place